A Place to show my latest works, Paintings done from Facebook photos Size A2.
Speed paintings.
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IT'S PAINTING AND DRAWING HERE From Monday 25th. April

We’ve Been Expecting You, Mr. Bond Welcome to this special pre-premiere ‘Skyfall’ edition of the JBIFC’s
Newsletter. We thought our members, friends and other fans would
appreciate some extra news on the eve of the launch of the exciting new
007 film which, as many of you know, receives its Royal Premiere on
Tuesday October 23 in central London.
In fact, so much James Bond news has been flowing in during
the last few weeks, it would be a shame not to share some of it with as
many of you as possible, including all our good friends right across the
world.
Britain at the moment is awash with James Bond news,
especially given the fact that this year is the 50 th anniversary of the
EON movies and we are also about to see the results of Daniel Craig’s
third adventure as a member of Her Majesty’s Secret Service. And boy are
we in for a treat! We are very happy to report that the reactions to
the new Bond movie from those who have been lucky enough to see it
already have been overwhelmingly positive. Bond Is Most Definitely Back A
large posse of excited journalists and other guests were able to see
‘Skyfall’ at a special press preview at the Odeon, Leicester Square, on
Friday October 12, and many of the early press reviews of the new movie
appeared in newspapers and on movie review websites over the weekend of
October 13-14.
We don’t intend to give away any major spoilers, but there
a number of things we can still highlight about some of the reactions
to the latest James Bond thriller.
The UK’s newspaper The Times, for example
(October 13), in its review, said Bond’s resurrection ‘is one to die
for’. The paper called the new Bond movie ‘a great British bulldog of a
movie’, which is ‘a triumphant return to classic Bond’. The newspaper,
one of Britain’s leading newspapers and probably famous throughout the
world, even devoted part of its editorial comment to the return of 007!
How many movie franchises can do that?
Similarly, the UK’s Independent newspaper was full of enthusiasm for the new movie, calling it one of the best Bonds in recent memory and ‘Craig’s finest’.
The UK’s best-selling newspaper The Sun was
equally enthusiastic: its review was entitled ‘Another big hit, Mr.
Bond’, and it predicted that it ‘is sure to be another box office hit’.
And that has been the flavour of numerous other reviews – the vast
majority have praised the new 007 film sky high. The Sky is Full of Bond During
the final weekend before the premiere of the 23rd James Bond movie, the
British media gave us another generous round of what has been a
mini-avalanche of Bond-related material in recent weeks.
A good example came two days before premiere day, in the ‘Celebs’ magazine of the Sunday Mirror (October 21), which carried an interview with Daniel Craig.
The interview opened with the 007 star being asked ‘Do you
feel in your comfort zone as Bond now?’, to which Daniel
(unsurprisingly) replied: ‘No, not at all. I’d hate to feel in a comfort
zone while I was working. That’s not the way I like to do things. You
want to be pressurised and you want to be challenged every day’. In
response to a question about whether ‘Skyfall’ felt different from his
previous two films, the current 007 said: ‘Yeah, definitely – in every
way. This has an individual look to it, something I don’t think you’ve
seen in any other Bond movie. I think it’s quite special’. The Bond Brand of Humour
The ‘Celebs’ interview also touched upon rumours that there is more
‘humour’ in the new Bond movie. In response to this, Craig explained:
‘The humour’s not something we’ve tried to do. The humour comes out of
situations ore than it does out of gags. We’ve got some very funny lines
in the movie, but who knows how an audience may find them? I think
there are funny moments but I have a very dark humour’. On the question
of the ‘personality’ of Bond, Daniel was asked where he might take Bond
next? He commented that it was a case of wait and see: ‘I mean, really,
I’m not going to say that we’ve done something incredibly different
here. We’ve done something, I think, which has quality about it and
we’ve got a great story that we want to tell. But it is a kind of
wait-and-see situation’. Nobody Does It Better Three days before the premiere of ‘Skyfall’, an interview with Daniel Craig also appeared in the weekend magazine of the UK’s Daily Telegraph newspaper
(October 20). Conducted last June, about a week after Daniel completed
filming on the new James Bond movie, the interview took place at
Claridge’s Hotel in London, where members of the British media had been
invited as part of the publicity campaign for ‘Skyfall’. The
interviewer, Vicki Reid, noted that, whereas Craig’s first two 007
adventures were ‘quite dark’, his third Bond movie will see a return of
what might be called the more traditional ‘cinema’ elements of the film
series, such as the wry humour, the gadgets, and the over-the-top
villains. All these have featured in the most recent films, but had been
played down. Craig said: ‘It’s got some fun in it, but it’s not forced.
I’m not winking at the camera. The writing’s really good, and I think
that lends itself to humour...’. Craig’s Praise For Rigg Who is Daniel Craig’s favourite Bond woman? The UK’s Sunday Express tackled
this interesting question on October 21. The answer may surprise some
people, but possibly not dedicated Bond fans: it is Diana Rigg, who
played Tracy Di Vicenzo in ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’ (1969). The
‘Skyfall’ star was quoted by the Express as saying: ‘Diana Rigg is kind of my favourite, she’s just great in that movie, she stands out for me’. But the Express spoilt
its report somewhat by claiming that the 1969 movie is regarded as ‘the
least favoured of the franchise’. Really? We think not. However, the Express then
tried to claw back a little bit of credibility by noting that Sir Roger
Moore has said (again) that he would like to come back as a Bond
villain. The newspaper offered a nice little cartoon of a surprised
Daniel Craig discovering Sir Roger dressed as Blofeld, complete with
white cat, and saying: ‘Ah, Mr. Bond. You weren’t expecting ME!’ Starburst Celebrates Skyfall Among
the large number of Bond-related articles that have appeared in
magazines over the last few weeks, there was one magazine that seems
like an old friend from the past: Starburst magazine, which was
a favourite of many Bond fans for its 007 coverage in the 1970s and
1980s. The glossy British magazine boasts that it is the world’s
longest-running magazine of sci-fi, horror, and fantasy, and
(pleasingly) it has seen something of a renaissance in recent times.
Recent issues have included some great Bond coverage. The latest issue
(no.381, for October 2012) has maintained this tradition with style.
With Daniel Craig firmly on the front cover, the October issue (a
‘Skyfall’ special) contains a preview of the new Bond movie, an article
on the world of Ian Fleming, a ‘Beginner’s Guide’ to Ian Fleming’s Bond
novels, a short article on the original American TV version of ‘Casino
Royale’ transmitted in the 1950s, an exploration of the Bond strip
cartoon that appeared in the Daily Express, a profile of the
Bond villains, a look at the 1967 film version of ‘Casino Royale’, a
profile of Bond’s vehicles and gadgets, an article on the Charlie Higson
‘Young Bond’ adventures, a profile of the Bond women in the movies, a
discussion of the ‘Bonds we never had’, an article on the Bond film that
Quentin Tarantino wanted to make, a profile of the ‘Top ten’ Bond
stunts, a Starburst readers’ poll on their favourite Bond movie, an
interview with Honor Blackman, and an article on ‘Bond at Fifty’. Phew!
All that for just £3.95. A bargain, 007. The Car with the Golden Touch It
has been called the most famous car in the world. Given that Bond’s
iconic Aston Martin makes a welcome return in ‘Skyfall’ (including
during the London and Scottish sequences), there has been a lot of
interest again in the vehicles of 007, especially in the view of the
fact that many of them have been on display at the special ‘Bond in
Motion’ exhibition at Beaulieu, in the New Forest area of Britain, which
has seen thousands of visitors. ‘Global James Bond Day’ on October 5
also saw Bond’s Aston Martin DBS from ‘Quantum of Solace’ makes the
largest amount of money at an auction for charity held at Christie’s in
central London. The UK’s ‘Collector’s Gazette’ magazine (no.344, for
November 2012) has celebrated the Aston Martin with a special article on
‘Bond Collectables’, by Jim Stevenson, which explores the various
diecast and other model versions of the Aston Martin which have appeared
since the 1960s. Mint-boxed, the original Corgi Toys Aston Martin is
now worth hundreds of pounds. Auric Goldfinger would be proud! Did You Know?
Bond’s Aston Martin was spotted at Hankley Common, in Surrey, sitting
outside the impressive Skyfall Lodge, a few days after the massive
explosion that took place there. It was looking, er, shall we say
‘rather toasted’, and was covered in tarpaulin three days later by the
film’s technical crew to prevent curious onlookers taking a peek. Bond Bits: Brief Items of Skyfall News You May Have Missed
New Bond woman Berenice Marlohe has revealed how she had just two
auditions in a year before landing the coveted role of Severine in
‘Skyfall’. According to the UK’s Sunday Express newspaper
(October 14), the 33-year old French actress spent years in Paris
struggling to make it on the big screen. She was turned down for
countless roles before Sam Mendes saw her potential... Where did Daniel Craig sneek off for a quick rest while filming Bond? According to a report in London’s Metro newspaper
(October 17), he would grab 40 winks underwater! Craig was quoted as
saying: ‘Underwater scenes are my favourite because no one can find
you’. He continued: ‘When we’re not shooting, I swim to the bottom of
the huge tanks at Pinewood Studios, which are 30 ft deep. I just sink to
the bottom, put the respirator on and hide. It’s so great and sometimes
I get some sleep down there’...
In the novels, one of James Bond’s favourite stores in London was said
to be Harrods. It has become something of a tradition in recent years,
just before a Bond film premiere, for the store to mount a special Bond
display in its shop windows. Visitors to London can currently see a
special ‘Skyfall’ window display at the famous store...
The ‘Magic’ radio station in the UK will help celebrate the general
release of ‘Skyfall’ on Friday October 26 by playing throughout the day
the favourite Bond songs chosen by their listeners... New ‘Q’ actor Ben Wishaw was featured in the ‘Weekend’ magazine of the Guardian newspaper
on October 20. He has been making a second series of the well-reviewed
BBC drama series ‘The Hour’. It will be transmitted on the UK’s BBC-2 in
November, 2012...
To help celebrate the imminent launch of ‘Skyfall’, the UK’s cable and
satellite music channel ‘Magic’ devoted an hour on the evening of
October 20 to screening the Bond song tie-in videos...
Congratulations to the singer Adele. With her song for ‘Skyfall’ riding
high in the music charts, she has now become a Mum, too! It was
announced on October 21 that the ‘Skyfall’ theme-tune singer has given
birth to a healthy baby boy. The British media reported that 24-year old
singer and her partner Simon Konecki were overjoyed... To help celebrate the release of the 23rd Bond movie, the ‘Celebs’ magazine of the UK’s Sunday Mirror (October
21) featured an article entitled ‘The 007 secrets’, which gave readers
seven supposed ‘secrets’ associated with the Bond films. The ‘secrets’
included no. 7, which noted that in a recent ‘Bond Survey’ Sean Connery
was the favourite Bond of all time, followed closely by Daniel Craig...
Sir Roger Moore has been touring Britain as part of the promotion of
his new book ‘Bond On Bond’, giving interviews live on stage at various
locations. When he appeared at the Rose Theatre in Kingston-on-Thames,
Surrey, on Sunday October 14, he said he had just seen ‘Skyfall’, and he
was full of high praise for Daniel Craig and the new Bond movie. In
fact, he returned to the topic a number of times during the course of
his interview live on stage... The
BBC’s ‘Culture Show’ on BBC-2 will be a 30-minute ‘Culture Show 007
Special’ on Wednesday October 24th at 10.00pm (London time), devoted to
an interview with ‘Skyfall’ director Sam Mendes, who is interviewed by
Mark Kermode. The show will be repeated the following day, and an
hour-long version will be transmitted about a week later... New Bond villain Javier Bardem was interviewed in the weekend magazine of the UK’s Guardian newspaper
on October 13. Among the interesting comments was the revelation that
he had been approached before about being in a Bond movie but, he said,
it was the confluence of a good script and Sam Mendes as director that
finally made him say yes to a role in Bond...
Set your reminders. Bond fans in the UK will be able to see Daniel
Craig, Dame Judi Dench, and Javier Bardem being interviewed on ‘The
Graham Norton Show’ on BBC-1 on Friday October 26, at 10.35pm (London
time)...
Charlie Higson, the author of the ‘Young Bond’ series, who is always up
for a challenge, will be tweeting summaries of the plots to the Ian
Fleming novels on October 23... Look up! Look down! Watch out for the new issue of the UK’s Radio Times magazine (on sale on premiere day, October 23), which will have an interview with Bond producer Barbara Broccoli... BBC
Radio-4’s movie programme ‘The Film Programme’, to be transmitted on
Thursdya October 25 at 4.00pm, will include an interview with Daniel
Craig... After
months of preparation and hard work, you can now check out the JBIFC’s
re-launched website, where we will continue to bring you all the latest
James Bond news...

Global Eye: James Bond Day This
is a very special year for James Bond fans everywhere. Not only are we
celebrating 50 years (!) of 007 on screen, but there are now just weeks
to go before the 23 rd Bond movie hits our screens, with Daniel Craig
back as MI6’s best operative. At one point, it looked as if this would
never happen. But Bond, as they say, is well and truly back. As part of
the special celebrations, Friday October 5 has been made Global James
Bond Day. The special day will see a series of 007-related events around
the world, including a global online (and live) charity auction
(organised by Christies in London), a global survey to discover the
favourite Bond film of people on a country-by-country basis across the
world, a film retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New
York, a special music of Bond evening in Los Angeles, and the opening of
the ‘Designing 007: 50 years of Bond Style’ exhibition in Toronto,
after its highly successful run in London recently. Other events on the
day include, for James Bond fans in the UK, a chance to see the new
James Bond documentary ‘Everything or Nothing’ at selected Odeon
Cinemas. This documentary provides a detailed history of the creation
and evolution of Bond on screen, and contains a host of new and rare
archive material. It’s Official: The ‘Skyfall’ Theme Song is by Adele Many
Bond fans will know by now that the award-winning British artist Adele
will be singing the theme song to ‘Skyfall’. The song will be released
via her official website on Friday October 5, the anniversary day of the
release of the first 007 film ‘Dr. No’ in 1962. It is also, of course,
Global James Bond Day. The rumours about Adele had been around for some
time, and were fanned even more when Adele appeared as a special guest
on the Jonathan Ross Show some months back. When mischievous Ross hummed
the James Bond theme, Adele was placed in a very difficult position!
The JBIFC first got wind of the fact that it was officially Adele a few
weeks ago, when an insider at the recording studio became a bit of a
bigmouth (as the English would say). We should have fed him to the
sharks, or called the Spectre assassination branch. Adele Fell For ‘Skyfall’ In an
official press release issued to the media on October 1, it was
revealed that Adele read the script to ‘Skyfall’ and then enlisted the
help of Paul Epworth to co-write and produce the theme song. Adele
commented: ‘I was a little hesitant at first to be involved with the
theme song for Skyfall. There’s a lot of instant spotlight and pressure
when it comes to a Bond song. But I fell in love with the script and
Paul had some great ideas for the track and it ended up being a bit of a
no-brainer to do it in the end. It was a lot of fun writing to a brief,
something I’ve never done which made it exciting. When we recorded the
strings, it was one of the proudest moments of my life’. The song was
recorded at the famous Abbey Road Studios in London, and a 77-piece
orchestra was utilised. Never Say Never: Spectre Back Some Day? The November issue of the popular British sci-fi magazine SFX,
which hit British news-stands in late September, contained some
excellent coverage of ‘Skyfall’, together with an interview with Danny
Kleinman (the man charged with designing the title sequences for the new
Bond movie), and a rare piece by screenwriter Christopher Wood, who
wrote the screen treatments for ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ (1977) and
‘Moonraker’ (1979). Wood also wrote the special tie-in novels that were
issued for both movies. In the magazine’s ‘Skyfall’ coverage, there was
some interview material with Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael
G. Wilson. At one point, the producers made some intriguing comments
about future possible Bond movie plotlines. Responding to a question
about why the ‘Quantum’ organisation was not used in ‘Skyfall’, Wilson
revealed that they have not abandoned the organisation: ‘No, I think
it’s still out there, but we just don’t refer to it in this particular
film’. And tantalisingly, as SFX also noted, Wilson revealed
that they have the rights to bring back Blofeld and Spectre, which
played such a big role in the Bond movies of the 1960s before legal
issues with Kevin McClory stopped EON utilising them. Wilson added: ‘We
believe we can use them. They’re a little dated at the moment. We went
for the Quantum organisation, which was more business oriented, trying
to corner the market on scarce resources, rather than a criminal
organisation that did blackmail and bank robberies’. Pay Attention, 007: ‘Skyfall’ Team to Return? Some interesting comments were made by the showbiz columnist Baz Bamigboye in the UK’s Daily Mail on
September 21. Bamigboye, who has broken various items of news about
‘Skyfall’ over the past year, said that we should expect to see Naomie
Harris, Ben Whishaw and Ralph Fiennes in future Bond films. Bamigboye
claimed in his gossip column: ‘It’s already known that Whishaw is the
new Q and this page revealed a while back that Naomie is the new
Moneypenny. The Skyfall trailer hints as to what Fiennes’s involvement
might be, but I’m not going to give it away – though I’ve known for more
than a year, and there are rumours galore on the internet’. Bamigboye
continued: ‘All three actors have options in their deals to return in
other Bond films (the 24 th in the series will start shooting in the
next 18 months)’. Meanwhile, Ralph Fiennes has been making an impact as
Magwitch in a new big screen version of ‘Great Expectations’, which had
its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. A Diamond is Forever: In Praise of Harry John Patterson, writing in the Guardian newspaper’s
weekly ‘Guide’ magazine on September 29, paid generous tribute to Bond
producer Harry Saltzman. He opened his article by saying: ‘When it comes
time to celebrate 50 years of the James Bond franchise... I hope we
recall the half-forgotten man of the whole enterprise: the man who,
after reading Goldfinger, discerned the potential movie fortune lying
dormant in the novels of Ian Fleming; the man who made Sean Connery a
star, and sealed Michael Caine’s fortune by giving him his own spy
franchise...’. Patterson noted that Harry Saltzman was, by all accounts,
the ultimate caricature of the movie producer: warm, loud, crass, and a
consummate gambler, with a keen eye for the main chance ‘and a tight
fist around the purse strings’. But for all that, ‘Saltzman ended being
behind some of the most important movies in 1960s British cinema’.
According to Patterson, Saltzman was part of the large and largely
undocumented influx of creative Canadians that landed in London in the
late 1950s and early 1960s and, after a few failures, caught the
fleeting zeitgeist of the times with the movie ‘Saturday Night
and Sunday Morning’, a gritty kitchen-sink drama which made a star of a
young Albert Finney (who, coincidentally, is in ‘Skyfall’ as the Bond
ancestral home gamekeeper). Moreover, Saltzman pushed for Sean Connery
to be Bond, along with Broccoli, against the demands of the studio
bosses in America. Without Saltzman, wrote Patterson, ‘British cinema of
the 1960s – and ever after – would look decidedly different, and a lot
less fun’. Try Another Way You
have to hand it to Sam Mendes: he went all out to get some really
talented stars for ‘Skyfall’. One of these was actress Helen McCrory,
who has a small but important part in the new Bond movie as a British
Member of Parliament. She has been in the UK’s newspapers quite a bit
recently because of her role in the ITV-1 drama ‘Leaving’, and also for
her part in ‘The Last of the Haussmans’, a play at London’s famous
National Theatre, which has received high praise from the critics.
Married to ‘Homeland’ actor Damian Lewis, 43-year old Helen is,
primarily, a stage actress, but has also played various acclaimed parts
on TV, such as Cherie Blair in the dramas ‘The Queen’ and ‘The Special
Relationship’. McCrory was persuaded to take a part in ‘Skyfall’ by Sam
Mendes, who personally asked her. And she is very loyal to Mendes:
various journalists have tried to prise some details out her concerning
‘Skyfall’, but she has not succumbed. Although she has remained very
tight-lipped about her Bond role in media interviews, she clearly
thoroughly enjoyed being in the movie. Back in April, she told the
London Evening Standard newspaper, for example: ‘It’s great,
and I am enjoying it tremendously. I can’t reveal too much about my part
but I think there is a lot of writing now for women who are in their
sexual prime in their forties’. She also told the Sunday Times,
which conducted a lengthy interview with her recently, that: ‘It’s a
Bond movie. Everyone wants to be in a Bond movie’. But she refused to
add any detail: ‘They are more secretive than the real MI5’. She joked
that she would be ‘abducted’ if she said anything more! Radio Times Bond Special The BBC’s TV and radio listings magazine Radio Times was
something of a James Bond special on September 8, and featured an
attractive image of Craig, Connery and Moore on its front cover. Inside
the magazine, readers were able to peruse an article by the BBC film
expert Barry Norman, who at one point revealed that his father, the film
director Leslie Norman, had been on the short list to direct the first
007 movie ‘Dr. No’. Norman also gave recalled some memories of the time
when he interviewed Roger Moore in Rio de Janeiro, during the making of
‘Moonraker’. At the time, said Norman, Roger was at loggerheads with
Cubby Broccoli over his pay for Bond and whether he would make another
Bond movie. Just before the interview began, Cubby apparently said to
Norman: ‘Ask him – ask him if he’s going to do the next movie’. So Barry
Norman did ask Roger, only to get an evasive but smooth answer which
could be interpreted either way! Broccoli was not best pleased. The
magazine also contained an article on the music of 007 (to tie in with a
BBC Radio 2 special live evening of Bond music on September 14) and a
survey asking readers ‘Who is the best Bond?’, with a boxed set of
Blu-ray ‘Bond at 50’ discs as a prize, something guaranteed to put
somebody in 007 heaven. A Whole Lot Moore Sir
Roger Moore, who was featured in the hour-long programme ‘Piers
Morgan’s Life Stories’ on the UK’s ITV-1 on Friday September 14, was
also profiled in the September 8 edition of the ITV magazine TVTimes.
The article, by David Hollingsworth, looked at Sir Roger’s illustrious
TV career, his charity work, his four marriages, and, of course, his
long service as Her Majesty’s Secret Servant 007. On TV, Sir Roger was
in ‘Ivanhoe’ (1958-59), ‘The Alaskans’ (1959-1960), ‘Maverick’
(1959-61), and ‘The Persuaders’ (1971-72). More famously, he was also
Simon Templar, otherwise known as ‘The Saint’ (1962-69). In fact, as
well as being the 50 th anniversary of the James Bond films, 2012 is
also the golden jubilee of ‘The Saint’. ‘Ah, yes, Simon Templar is
getting old, too’, said Roger. On James Bond, Roger recalled
particularly enjoying filming ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ (1977). He said: ‘I
think, perhaps, we reached the right level of humour’. He also repeated
something he has said on previous occasions: that he would still love
to play a Bond villain: ‘They get all the best lines’. Sir Roger, who
was knighted in 2003, also reflected on his hard work for children’s
charity UNICEF: ‘I’d say it has become a full-time job. There’s a great
deal to do and it’s hard to know when and where to stop’. The Man with the Golden GongOn
Tuesday September 18, at 8.00pm, the cable and satellite channel Sky
Arts 1 screened the first episode of its new series on ‘British Legends
of Stage and Screen’. The subject of the first programme was Sir
Christopher Lee, well known to Hammer Horror fans as Dracula but also to
the 007 fanbase as Francisco Scaramanga, the ruthless assassin with the
golden gun, who charged a million a shot. Directed by Anthony Fabian,
and narrated by Sue MacGregor, the special Sky Arts profile of Sir
Christopher inevitably touched upon his role as a Bond baddie in
1974-75. When he was offered the role and read the script, Lee said of
Scaramanga: ‘He had three nipples. When I read that I thought it’s a bit
odd. I asked my doctor and he said, oh no, it’s quite common’.
Reflecting further on the character, Lee pointed out that Scaramanga
‘had a sense of humour, was very polite, but also deadly’. He also
referred to the fact that Bond author Ian Fleming was Lee’s cousin, and
revealed that Fleming was at Eton school with a boy named Scaramanga who
he ‘disliked intensely’. It was left to viewers to draw the obvious
conclusions! Sir Christopher also gave some thoughts on his award of a
Knighthood in the New Year’s Honours List in 2009 (he was Knighted by
Charles, Prince of Wales). He also reflected on his award of a BAFTA
Fellowship in 2001, and said he felt ‘so emotional’ at the audience’s
reaction to his appearance on stage to accept the BAFTA award and, with
it, the recognition of his film peers. He said he had felt ‘so
overwhelmed’. You really earned it, Sir Christopher! Shaken and Stirred The October edition of the British monthly magazine History Today,
which appeared in late September, helped celebrate 50 years of the Bond
movies with a special article on James Bond in history, written by
University scholar Klaus Dodds. Starting with ‘Dr. No’ in 1962 and
analysing the 007 phenomenon from the 1960s right through to the present
day, Dodds speculated on how and why the Bond series as a filmic
formula has proven so remarkably resilient over the last 50 years. Key
to this in the beginning were the far-sighted producers Albert Broccoli
and Harry Saltzman, who purchased the rights to the Bond novels in
1961(except ‘Casino Royale’) and were instrumental in bringing Fleming’s
secret agent to the big screen. Dodds also pointed to the highly
talented team recruited by Broccoli and Saltzman, such as the
screenwriter Richard Maibaum and the set designer Ken Adam. In addition,
according to Dodds, the Bond films are action thrillers ‘with generic
qualities that follow a clear formula. A simple but dramatic narrative
arc was established from the outset’. Other factors that contributed to
the huge success of the Bond series included the actors who portrayed
Bond, the gadgets, the girls and the glamour, all elements which helped
broaden the reach of the Bond series in terms of global markets. More
importantly, as Dodds noted: ‘The James Bond phenomena persists not only
because it rests on a successful formula but because of the willingness
to adapt that formula’. The introduction of Daniel Craig, for example,
was significant in re-booting Bond. Dodds ended his article: ‘Bring on
Skyfall’. History Today, volume 62, no.10 (October, 2012), is on sale at UK newsagents, priced £5.20. Bond in the West Indies Charlie
Higson as James Bond? Surely not? Yes, it’s true, but not quite in the
way you might have expected. The author of the ‘Young Bond’ book series
has penned the screenplay for a new adaptation of Agatha Christie’s
popular story ‘A Caribbean Mystery’, made for the British TV channel
ITV1 and to be screened in 2013. Higson has included a small role for
himself in the plot as ‘James Bond’, the real-life American
ornithologist, whose name author Ian Fleming ‘borrowed’ for his new
secret agent in his debut novel ‘Casino Royale’. The real James Bond,
who sadly died in 1989 (aged 89) was author of ‘Birds of the West
Indies’, one of Fleming’s favourite books, which often lay on the coffee
table at Fleming’s Jamaican home Goldeneye. Did You Know? Ian
Fleming actually met the real-life James Bond in person in 1964, at
Goldeneye, his home in Jamaica. The 007 author gave James Bond a
pre-publication first edition of his latest novel ‘You Only Live Twice’
as a souvenir of his visit to the birthplace of the fictional James
Bond. Fleming wrote in it: ‘To the real James Bond from the thief of his
identity’. Bond Bits: Brief News Items You May Have Missed Ian
Fleming’s wife Ann was portrayed on the British stage recently, when the
play ‘A Marvellous Year For Plums’ ran at the UK’s Chichester Theatre.
Set in 1956, around the time of the Suez Crisis, the play was about the
real-life secret affair that was conducted between between Ann Fleming
(played by Imogen Stubbs) and the Labour Party leader Hugh Gaitskell
(played by Nicholas Le Provost)...
British TV presenter and Radio-2 DJ Chris Evans, who is also a big James
Bond fan, turned some heads on August 23 when he drove the original car
from the movie ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ (which was based on Ian
Fleming’s story for children) through central London. Evans, who has a
collection of classic vehicles, purchased the car for £500,000 in
January 2012, the only working one used in the 1968 movie... There
were several versions of the car made for ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’,
but the only one that worked was designed by Bond set-designer Ken Adam.
It was built by the Ford Racing Team, and has a dashboard plate from a
World War One fighter plane... Olga
Kurylenko (from ‘Quantum of Solace’), who stars in ‘To the Wonder’, a
love story with Ben Affleck and new Bond villain Javier Bardem, was the
only key star of the movie to be able to make it to the premiere of the
film at the Venice Film Festival on September 2... Olga
plays a Frenchwoman in the movie who has a passionate affair with an
American (Ben Affleck) in Paris, but the relationship slowly begins to
unravel. The unusual film, directed by Terence Malick, contains hardly
any dialogue. Javier Bardem plays a priest in the movie, who is
struggling with his faith... The
JBIFC was very sad to hear of the death of lyricist Hal David, who
passed away in Los Angeles on September 1. He penned some of the most
memorable songs of the 1960s, including ‘Walk On By’ and ‘Do You Know
The Way To San Jose’ for Dionne Warwick. His wide range of work also
included collaborations with John Barry on the Bond songs ‘We Have All
the Time in the World’ in 1969 and ‘Moonraker’ in 1979. Rest in Peace,
Hal... 007 novelist Sebastian Faulks (‘Devil May Care’) gave an interview to the London Metro newspaper
on September 20, to help publicise his new novel ‘A Possible Life’
(which is actually five novellas that range across time). He said the
book is about ‘how people change over the course of a life. I’ve been
interested in this for a long time’... Who
was the heavily-disguised villain in ‘The Power of Three’, an episode of
the popular BBC sci-fi show ‘Dr. Who’ shown on September 22? The voice
of the villain ‘Shakri’ sounded eerily familiar: well, it was none other
than Steven Berkoff, who played renegade Russian General Orlov in
‘Octopussy’ (1983)... Sean Connery as the Doctor who said No? According to the Sunday Times,
which contained extracts from the memoirs of Irish writer Edna O’Brien
on September 23, back in 1970 Sean strongly advised her against taking
LSD, recalling his own bad experience of it... After
finding it difficult to cope with all the pressures of the fame that
went with the Bond mania of the mid-60s, Connery had consulted the
famous but controversial psychiatrist R.D. Laing, who had persuaded the
Scottish star to take a tab of pure LSD. Connery’s trip was deeply
traumatic. After O’Brien went ahead anyway, Connery and a friend came
around to her place to see how she was faring. They were so shocked at
her condition they stayed to look after her...
Speaking in central London in late September to help promote the new
James Bond Blu-ray collection, Britt Ekland (who played Mary Goodnight
in ‘The Man With The Golden Gun’), argued that, in her estimation, Sir
Roger Moore was the best Bond. She said Bond ‘was a bachelor,
unattached, luxurious, sophisticated. I think Roger really portrayed
that’. Britt was joined at the event by Richard ‘Jaws’ Kiel... So, what can we expect after the lengthy pre-credits for ‘Skyfall’, when Adele’s song kicks in? Speaking to SFX magazine,
Danny Kleinman, who made such an impact with his iconic titles for
‘Goldeneye’ and ‘Casino Royale’, said about his new title sequences for
Craig’s third adventure: ‘I think it’s time to slightly reinvent it
again. Make it maybe a bit more vital and a bit more psychological – not
change everything, but just enough that it feels different and
fresh’...
Naomie Harris, who plays field agent Eve in ‘Skyfall’, has recently
finished work on ‘Mandela: A Long Walk Home’, in which she plays
Mandela’s (now former) wife Winnie Mandela... Dame
Judi Dench, who reprises her role as ‘M’ in ‘Skyfall’ (and has a major
and pivotal role in the movie), attended a special event at Sotheby’s in
central London in early September, where leading ‘Bollywood’ stars were
out in force. The special evening was held to launch ‘India
Fantastique’, a book which celebrates Indian fashion and design.... The
new ‘Q’, Ben Whishaw, is keeping very busy. He is in the new movie
version of the cult story ‘Cloud Atlas’ and, in the near future, he will
be starring alongside Judi ‘M’ Dench in John Logan’s new theatre
production ‘Peter and Alice’, which will run at the Noel Coward Theatre
in London from March, 2013... There were some fascinating comments from ‘Skyfall’ cinematographer Roger Deakins in a special free issue of Film and Digital Times in
September. Speaking about the ‘look’ of the new 007 film, he said: ‘I
can say that it’s got a lot of variety, from the very hot, bright, day
exteriors to very dark, underground, cavernous areas lit with little
practicals we made up. There’s huge variety, even more than you’d find
in a typical Bond film, I think’... 50 Years of Guns and Girls Paul
Burch, music director for the Denmark Street Big Band in London has been
in touch and asked me to let you know that they are presenting two
amazing James Bond nights with music from all the James Bond films!! The
first is on Sunday 14th October At The Spice Of Life, Cambridge Circus,
London and Saturday 27th Oct At The Jazz Café Posk, Hammersmith.....Finally,
we've had various media people contact us in the hunt for Bond fans
with large collections of Bond memorabillia and who may have met some of
the James Bond stars.
BBC online are particularly keen to find enthusiastic fans in the West Midlands area to appear on their web site.
A couple of the daily papers want to find serious Bond fans / collectors, some from outside the UK.
If anyone's interested in having their story told, please
email me an idea of what you collect and how much of a Bond fan you are,
my email is just below....